In search of the Goddess within

Before I paint someone it helps to know a bit about them. Just so that I have a better understanding of the essence of that person, to be able to incorporate it into the portrait. I don't need to know all the tiny details of the persona, just the bare facts will help. For anyone really. Male, female, young, old, mortal or immortal....

Immortal? You ask. Certainly! A beautiful Goddess, no, more than that - seven of them!

So when I'm asked to paint a Goddess, I need to know abit about her.
When I'm asked to paint seven Goddesses, for one painting,  I need to know about each one. In some detail.

I always say that nine tenths of painting a picture, no matter how complex it is, is the thinking that goes into  it. The subject, the composition, the techniques to use, the medium, the size, the story behind the image, the whole ambience I'm trying to capture within my painting. So, seven Goddesses needs a lot of research, because I don't know much about any of them, infact I'd only heard of three of them when I was asked to do the painting......

MMm.....some background details are needed, I realised. Start to find some more about them, to be able to capture the essence of each one... but that has made me realise that I need to read up even more on each of them, as being a Goddess is obviously a very complex thing. You've got a lot to be Goddess of, I've found, and some of them have varied and diverse connections.......

Take, for example, Hecate, the goddess associated with witches, ghosts, magic and crossroads (why crossroads I wondered, why not just roads?), torches (why torches specifically? why not just "fire"?), dogs (what's dogs got to do with anything to do with magic, witches and ghosts?), doorways, yew, garlic, aconites,  raisin cakes (what the ?!!) masks, candles, owls, bats, trivia, sheep - particularly black female lambs apparently, snakes, boars, willows, sapphire, silver, dark moons, and specifically the number three (what a weird mix THEY all are!).

I haven't found out much about Demeter yet, she is the Goddess of grain and fertility, ploughing and harvest, the bringer of seasons - and all of that sounds very nice and gently rural and buccolic - especially when I consider Kali!

There's Isis - a moon goddess of medicine, wisdom, motherhood, fertility, children, reincarnation.

And Astarte - goddess of war AND fertility, love, sexual energy and desire (how on earth are THEY connected?).

And Innana - source of the earths wells, springs and rivers, she is the goddess of sexual love, fertility and warfare (ah, there's starting to be a pattern here!) associated with lions, mating and fertility of humans and animals, and with rain and storms.

Then, there's Kali - who seems to a bit disconcerting to me -she's associated with eternal energy, time and change, war, death and destruction. But when I mentioned to my spiritual healer friend that I found Kali to be very dark, she told me that Kali "is actually a really nice goddess even if she DOES have the ability to be a bit stroppy". Mm...... "stroppy" eh? She seems more than "a bit stroppy" to me!

But my favourite is Diana - the ancient lady of the beasts. Mistress of wild things, especailly anything young and vulnerable, goddess of solitude, the wilderness and the great silences of nature, she is a moon goddess, a self sufficient goddess who lives life on her own terms. She is especially a goddess of women, and all the phases of womanhood, she stands for the part of us that is at home in the wilderness, in our primitive, instinctual nature. Goddess of the hunt, associated with wild animals and woodland, swelling on high mountains and sacred woods, especially oak groves.

Mmm..... I can really relate to the goddess Diana already- I can feel what she is. I can feel her force. I'll start with her, and see what I can see of her face, and then I've got to draw her and capture that essence in paint. Easy, eh?! :)  And that's before I start on the others - particularly Kali!!!!

From the heart

I've just been asked by my sister "Do you know ANYBODY  normal? ".  I laughed, and agreed that most people in my life are not. By that I don't mean that they are abnormal. Just more ................ interesting.......... than most.................................... perhaps.

But perhaps thats because in a way I go looking for it. I like the company of bi-sexual women and gay men. Of people who are interested in spiritual things, of clever witty humour and sexual openness. And in a way that determines my decision to be an Erotic Artist. And by the word "erotic" I actually mean "sensual" - of the senses. But of course there is more depth to it than that. There is the mind. A wonderful place full of fabulous things. Its where we start ideas, formulate concepts, and build on those ideas to form our lives in the way we choose.

And the mind has many depths too. Some things go a lot deeper than others. Some things are such a part of us that we cannot imagine ever not having them in our lives. Like my art. I was born an artist, and I have spent my life building up that talent and skill.

And sometimes it brings people to me who want me to portray something for them that is as vastly important to them, as my art is to me. And it fires me up to hear it when I am asked to do it. Because, I KNOW I can paint  landscapes, I KNOW I can paint pet portraits, and any usual subject matter for a painting. And will always happily do it for anyone who wants it. But, sometimes I am asked to paint more interesting things.

And recently, such a request came my way.

By a witch.

A male witch.

He asked me "Can you paint from the heart?" and I nodded............. "Yes, I can".

He told me his fabulous idea for a spiritual painting, and explained his reasons for wanting a woman artist to paint it - to put the "feminine" in the artwork. I have painted something similar already, and it is featured on my website. But it hasn't got the same mystical qualities that he will want in this new painting. I can see what he wants. And will really love painting it for him. And even though you may not be spiritual I think you will like it ..................too..........

Moon struck

I went to an art workshop yesterday. I go to them regularly and always get something from the experience. The tutors are different in their approach and subject matter but they're invariably happy to pass on tips about their painting techniques. This workshop was no different. The guy who did it though, was worried that if we didn't all follow his demonstration painting, step by step, and didn't go home with a clone of his painting, that he wasn't doing his job properly. It took quite a bit of persuasion on my part to get the point over, that whilst I could understand that the way to learn his methods was to copy them BUT for ME to ENJOY the experience, I had to put my own artistic input into it, or else I would feel TOTALLY frustrated and uncreative. I know for me to feel happy within myself I have to create, it's what I do. So, with what seemed to be against his better judgment, he let me do it......

The painting he wanted us all to copy was of a white waterfall, with a deep blue pool below it, tall brown rocks all around, bright green trees and bushes, all done on a nice sunny day with a pale blue sky. If we'd chosen a turquoisey blue sky the waterfall would have looked like it was on some tropical island, if we'd chosen a duller blue it would have looked like it was in a North American or European forest. When the guy started painting his picture, I was instantly interested in the technique, as it was done in oils, and a wet in wet approach (the wet paint is applied to a wet surface and creates a different effect because of it - particularly ideal for water effects in painting). He painted the sky, then the waterfall and pool below it, then the rocks, then added trees and bushes. But as I watched him, the thought came to me as to how I wanted to paint it, and what I wanted to add to the painting.......

So, here's my version of it, with my creative input. I painted the sky at night, and added a large moon. I painted the waterfall, and kept the colours of the pool dark, the reflected moonlight showing in the ripples of the water. This meant most of the rocks would be kept dark as the pale moonlight wouldn't highlight them, and the trees were kept dark too. But then, I needed a focal point to add interest to the painting....... and the obvious thing to me would be a unicorn, standing there pale and mysterious in the moonlight. And that was when the title of the painting came to me - "Moonstruck"! Yay, I like that, it summed the whole thing up for me. And the lovely thing about it, was that there were a lot of other people there on the workshop and everyone who stood and looked at my painting smiled broadly and said "Oh, how lovely, a unicorn!" and one person even asked me if unicorns had ever actually existed, which I thought was a lovely idea......

And then the tutor saw it, and said "Oh, Pegasus" and I explained, that no, it wasn't! Pegasus is a horse with wings, this is a unicorn, different thing altogether!

But after the workshop I had a chat with the tutor, and by then I'd seen more of his work, and realised that he was actually a very accomplished artist, who might be turning out cloned paintings for the demonstration, but was very talented in his own right with what else he could paint. I was impressed! I told him that I'm an erotic artist, and he was immediately interested in that (why am I not surprised!!!) and said he'd look at my website. I told him that normally I would be adding a naked woman or erotic couple to the type of paintings he produced, and infact want to do that at some point, there's something very erotic about waterfalls somehow. I don't know why, they just are!

And, then he showed me some more of his art and it turned out that he liked erotic art too! But was concerned that on the level he works at, that he might get complaints if he showed paintings like that.

So, I came home a very happy bunny, I'd produced a dramatic and mystical painting I was really happy with.

I'd got friends coming for dinner three hours after I got back from the workshop. And it struck me, as I chopped onions, added them to the frying pan, chose my herbs and spices, peeled mushrooms, added tomato puree, and all the delicious aromas fused together, that cooking is all part of the creative process for me too. It's a very pleasurable, sensual experience for me. My friends obviously thought so too - since they commented on how nice it all was, and wanted seconds!

So, I just need to find someone who wants to buy a unicorn painting now....................